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Saturday, 29 April 2017

The
‘Modern Love Bureau’ is the modern way for couples to meet in The Village,
which is an interesting commentary for today, because couples today are more
likely to meet via dating websites on the Internet, rather than going out and
meeting people socially. But one thing the ‘Modern Love Bureau’ has is “Blink
Match” technology, in other words matched marriages!
Six is matched with 4-15, and they fall in love with each other.
Yet the love Six feels for her has been manufactured by Two and 313 in a
laboratory. This might be a new Village, a new Six, but they still come for him
in the night when Six is asleep, three times in fact. Rather like the three
times in the original series of ‘A B and C.’
Six’s love is generated through gene symmetry therapy. They
scanned the brains of people who were likely to fall in love, they discovered,
and Two said Six would like this, that the more there was gene similarity
between people, the more they fell in love. And so they replicated by
transplanting 4-15’s genes into Six! His feelings for 4-15 are manufactured!
313 doesn’t like what she’s doing to Six, but lets not pretend she has any
choice in the matter.
There’s a touch of ‘Free For All’ about this episode, when 1891 of the
“Modern Love Bureau” speaks to Six through his television set. Six presses the
off button. Within seconds the doorbell to Six’s apartment rings. He goes to
open the door to find 1891 standing on the threshold!
Holes are beginning to appear in The Village, Two tells his son
11-12 that it’s something to do with the weather, an ambiance anomaly. But
really they are oblivion, and beyond all hope for anyone who falls into one of
the holes. And yet, for anyone courageous enough to take a leap of
faith………..they mean escape!And
so the episode of ‘Darling’ is reached in this screening of THEPRIS6NER,
and is fair to say the weakest of the six episodes, which arguably mirrors ‘Do
Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling’ for being the weakest episode in the original
series. The modern Love Bureau uses "blink match" technology to find
anyone in The Village a partner. 1891 appears talking to Six about the Mordern
Love Bureau through his televison set. Six slams the TV and the picture goes
blank. The next moment 1891 is standing on the doorstep of Six's apartment. Now
where have we seen such a scene before? Holes begin to appear in
The Village!
Six "What is it?"
Two "It's a nothing! It's oblivion! It's beyond all
hope!"
147's daughter 832 fell down such a hole as this. Six said
he would go into the hole and bring her back. But Six is weak, he has not the
strength of his convictions. He is afraid to take that “leap of faith,” for if
he had, Six would quickly discover that through the holes is escape! Or is
there? perhaps not, seeing as when 4-15 dived into one of these holes, in New
York 4-15's counterpart Lucy Dies in Michael's
apartment when it is blown up due to a gas explosion!
This is one anomaly that runs through the entire series. It should be
Helen who is dreaming The Village, and that does appear to be the case. Lying
heavily sedated in a recliner in her apartment in New York.
So why is that reflected by M2 who spends the majority of her time lying in bed
heavily sedated, and can only be allowed a few minutes of wakeful time before
holes begin to appear in The Village? There is no reason for M2 to be in this unconscious
state, as its Helen in New York
who dreams The Village, and her counterpart M2 should be free to enjoy The
Village and her time with her son. After all that’s why she and her husband
Curtis, volunteered for The Village experiment in the first place. So that they
could have a son! M2 has never been with her son, has not seen him grow up, and
relies upon her husband Two to tell her about their son 11-12 during her brief
wakeful minutes. The Village was created in order to bring broken people there to
be made better. Its seems that does not work for M2 and Two himself. They
wanted a family, and Two places much reliance on family life, as he did in
‘Harmony.’ But in The Village M2 and Two appear to suffer as much as anyone.
Did I say this is the weakest episode of the series, I think I've
reassessed my opinion on that score!

In an emergency the electrician walks. Well that garden truck is a bit
slow, but they get you there in the end, and that’s what counts. Besides
where’s the emergency here? But it’s a bit more than a broken loudspeaker, it’s
been trampled to pieces underfoot by the Prisoner, if the Observers had been
watching they would have seen that. And there’s a rule about that, deliberate
destruction of official property is an offence, according to Number 12 of
administration, which could result in one of two things, imprisonment, or a
fine. But seeing as it was his first day perhaps they let him off!That garden tractor, it’s fitted with
the canopy that was originally attached to a Penny Farthing bicycle. Obviously
it didn’t work too well being part of the bicycle which appeared in the series
minus the canopy, and for some reason someone in the properties department
decided to attach said canopy to this garden tractor. I can see that such an
attachment would make the Penny Farthing top heavy, but isn’t such a canopy
supposed to give protection against the elements? It doesn’t look as though it
would afford the driver of this tractor much protection, it’s way too tall,
leaving the driver open to the elements! Perhaps it’s a metaphorical canopy,
being symbolic rather than to have any practical use. After all such canopies
can be seen all around The Village, on taxis, bicycles, sign posts, and over
speakers of the public address system, such is its practical use, the
protection of public property. As for the citizens themselves, mostly they
carry with them an umbrella, again symbolic of the protection The Village
affords them. Besides it only rains in The Village occasionally, what other use
could an umbrella afford anyone...perhaps as a parasol against protection from
the sun!

Why are these citizens so
happy for Number 6? Number 6 who is just being driven home from the hospital
having undergone the process known as Instant Social Conversion. They think he
has been pacified, lobotomized, all the aggression taken out of him, why should
they be happy about that? It might well be that many of them are pleased it’s
been done to Number 6, and not to them!It might be supposed that the “Lobo”
man is the only person in The Village to have undergone Instant Social
Conversion, whom Number 6 encountered in the hospital, and later while
listening to a silent speaker of the public address system. All that the doctor-Number 86 did to
Number 6 is to heavily sedate him, but then the good people of the community
didn’t know that. All they knew was Number 6 would turn out a model citizen, no
more trouble making, no more going about causing disruption, or attempting to
escape. Well that last one is right, Number 6 hasn’t attempted to escape The
Village since over two episodes ago in ‘Checkmate.’ Perhaps he finally came to
realize that escape is not possible, after all there are only a few ways one
can try to escape. By boat, well he tried that no fewer than four times, by
land, he tried that twice and failed the once, and found it impossible the
second time. But he never tried going the other way, not out into the estuary,
but along the river in a dug-out canoe. That would have meant felling another tree
and carving out the wood of the tree trunk, which he once did before. It may be
supposed that he had simply run out of options. Mind you, remembering Number 8,
who once said she would help him to escape if he had a good plan. She told him
that she had often helped others with their plans. I just wonder how many
different plans she helped with? Were there several different plans, or
variations on the ones attempted by Number 6? Anyway for the moment, even
though he’s merely sedated, Number 6 has peace of mind, but as we know that
will not last long!

Thursday, 27 April 2017

No.2 “I see you are still here.”Supervisor “Where else would I be?”“Nowhere I suppose. They say you
can’t keep a good man down.”“Who says that?”“Oh I don’t know, some people.”“I’m worried for you.”“For
me?”“Are you a good man?”“I told Number One I was a good man,
I am a good man.”“I spoke to Number One once.”“Really, what did you say to him?”“Well I was here in the Control Room,
and he asked if Number Two was here.”“And what did you say?”“I said yes sir.”“Well what else could you say? Do you know that apart from myself, and
all of my predecessors, you are the
only other person in the entire Village ever to speak to Number One?!”“But that’s not all.”“Not all?”“It was the voice, I recognized it.”“Really, who was it?”“Number Six!”“Not your voice?”“My voice?”“Yes.”“That would mean I’d be talking to
myself!”“We all want to be Number One.”“Not me.”“Not you?”“I like my job here in the Control Room,
it’s safe and secure. You don’t see Supervisors being changed every five
minutes!”“But you do have to be loyal to any
Number Two who takes up office.”“Yes but I’ll still be here when
Number Two has gone!”“Does that include me?”“N....no, I’d hate to see you go.”“Well I am going, and for one week,
one teeny weenie week it’s all yours.”“You mean I’m Number Two?”“Well there’s no time to bring in
anyone else is there.”“I’ll be seeing you then.”“Why do you say that?”“Because I might be gone by the time
you get back!”“If you’re gone when I get back, how
can I be seeing you?” “It was a parting greeting.”“Oh you’ll be alright, at least for
you Number Six will be out of the picture for a while. It’s me I’m worried
about, having to deal with a five year old child. Is the ice cream parlour open
do you know?”

During the
episode of ‘Checkmate,’ the doctor-Number
23 reads from a medical report on Number 6 upon whom a series of tests had been
carried out by the doctor herself. The result being that Number 6 showed a
negative reaction to pain, something which would take super-human will-power.
So just how much pain had the doctor put Number 6 through? Earlier in
the episode the doctor is quoted in wanting to find Number 6's breaking point.
Well if she was conducting physical pain on Number 6, there was her opportunity
to do so. When you stop and think about it, Number 6 is put
through all manner of conditioning, physical pain, emotional disappointment,
and remains unaffected by it all. Number 2 is on record saying that he
sometimes thinks Number 6 isn't human, I think he's right. And yet when it does
come to physical pain, by the time of ‘Hammer Into anvil’ when Number 2 puts
the point of his shooting stick sword to 6’s forehead, he appears to have lost
the ability of having a negative reaction to it!

“There can be no mitigation, we all have a
social obligation to stand together,” this oriental gentleman sounds like one
of Mao Tse-tung’s young cultural revolutionaries spouting something from Mao’s
little red book.

At one time I thought the young
man was wearing an extra badge other that his Village badge, but in my keenness
to see what it was, I quickly identified it as a simple button on his coat!

Tuesday, 25 April 2017

A vote for Number 6 is a vote for the
security of the citizens as your local candidate stands for election! And yet
“there are those who come in here and deny we can supply every conceivable
civilized amenity within our boundaries. You can enjoy yourselves, and you
will. You can partake of the most hazardous sports and you will the price is
cheap. All you have to do in exchange is give us information you are then
eligible for promotion to other and more attractive spheres. Where do you desire
to go? What has been your dream? I can supply it, winter spring, summer or fall
they can be yours at any time, apply to me and it will be easier and better.”The hazardous sports he’s talking
about probably includes Kosho, and in return all the citizens have to do is
given him information, Number 6 is talking like Number 2 already, especially
when the citizens have absolutely no choice in the matter. But there’s more,
give him the information and he’ll release you from The Village, like Cobb was
released to go onto more attractive spheres as he goes to serve his new masters. This new candidate for the
position of Number 2 is trying to manipulate the citizens by telling them if
they apply to him he’ll make it easier and better for them. But are these actually
Number 6’s own words? The candidate did undergo therapy, brainwashing during
the night before via the pulsator hidden in the overhear light. His first
speech was off the cuff, as Number 6 wouldn’t have had time to prepare that
speech, and the same seems to be said of his final speech and vocal exchange on
the hustings with Number 2.

“Place your trust in the old regime their
policies defined the future certain, the old regime forever and the old Number
Two forever. Confession by coercion is that what you want? Vote for him and you
have it, or stand upon firm upon this electoral platform and speak a word
without fear the word is…..freedom. They say six of one and half a dozen of the
other, not here, it’s Six for Two and Two for nothing and Six for free for all
for free for all vote, vote.” Number 6 seems to be doing pretty well, but it’s
not like him to carp, but what about Number 2, what does he do in his spare
time? Sadly he cannot afford spare time, he’s working to his limit, we’re all
entitled to spare time leisure is our right. But in Number 6’s spare time, if
he gets it, what will he do? The answer is a simple one, less work and more
play! Well that’s pretty obvious, and at least the words of that speech appear to
be the candidates own. Whereas before, when he addresses the electorate from
the forecastle of the Stoneboat apparently the candidate needed his speech to
be written on an “idiot board” as a memory reminder for him to read. The
question is who wrote that third speech for Number 6 {in all probability it was
Patrick McGoohan} and why the need for the “idiot board” as it’s suggestive
that those are not the candidate’s own words. And when he made that speech
during the lunchtime news he already sounded like a newly elected Number 2, but one of the old regime, not of a
candidate whose intention was to find out who the prisoners and warders are, to
stand on a platform for free speech and freedom!

During the
de-briefing of the Prisoner on the day of his arrival in The Village, we learn
that at some point, he had been under close surveillance. “What was that?” said
Number 2 “Sounded like a click, something in the mirror over there, yes, over
there too!” So who had been keeping ZM73 under such close surveillance? Had it
been by his own colleagues, Special Branch, or agents working for The Village
administration, why, and for how long? Had ZM73 become suspect, perhaps thy thought
he was about to sell out…..no that’s not the reason. But there must have been a
reason, perhaps by those who were soon to abduct him from his home and take him
to The Village. Perhaps there had become something doubtful about the Prisoner,
that he jumped before he was pushed, and then The Village administration picked
up the pieces by having him abducted. Perhaps the Prisoner went the same way as
Chambers soon to be late of the Foreign Office. ZM73 was going to meet Chambers
to try to get him to change his mind before the “big boys” found out, but they
had Chambers, and so he talked!
What would have ZM73 done once he discovered that cameras
had been secreted in his house. Would he report it to the department that
someone was watching him? He was thinking of going on holiday at the time, Paris was one place considered, also Ireland but it was a bit too cold there at
that time of the year. The trouble is we do not know how long ZM73 had been
under surveillance, and what the cause. It must have been before his resignation,
as was that fact he was considering going on holiday, because there wasn’t
enough time since his resignation. Because once having handed in his letter of
resignation ZM73 couldn’t get away quick enough, but they came for him before
he was expecting them. Was he expecting them? Well seeing as how ZM73 was in such
a hurry to get away, it would appear so, unless he was simply in a hurry to get
to the airport to catch his flight. But perhaps not quite so soon, and perhaps not
in the guise of two Undertakers, not that he saw who it was who came for him.
So where was the Prisoner going in such a hurry? Abroad obviously,
since the airline ticket tells us that much. Paris perhaps after all he had a contact in
Paris, Madam
Engadine!

Sunday, 23 April 2017

Although we never really see smoking in The
Village, apart from Number 6 trying to smoke a cigar of his favourite brand,
the fact that there are some Russian cigarettes in a box, Number 6 lights
Alison’s cigarette, and The Man With No Name rolls, and smokes, a cigarette
using brown liquorice paper, it must have occurred. When Number 36 attempts to
buy a bag of sweets from a kiosk in ‘It’s Your Funeral,’ when her weekly credit
allowance had been all used up, originally it was a packet of cigarettes she
was trying to buy!

Alison was a smoker and must have bought her
cigarettes from either a kiosk, or the General Store, because on the wall just
inside the door there is a cigarette machine. And Number 6 was supposed to
smoke a particular favourite brand of cigar. Perhaps as being their “prize
prisoner,” as Number 2 once described him, they indulged Number 6 by importing
his favourite brand of cigar specially for him even though we never see him actually
smoking them!

Number 6 has escaped The Village by use of a sea-going raft. He
struggles with gun runners, and is forced to jump overboard and swim for it,
well that’s not the first time he’s had to do that. Then he’s washed ashore, at
Beachy Head scales the cliff, and travels inland. He
encounters a gypsy camp and it treated not only to a cup of tea or broth, but
the first genuine act of kindness since his abduction to The Village.Eventually he returns to London, and does a very stupid thing by leaping out the
back of that Luton van and into the busy road of Park Lane. And just because he heard a police siren which is
instinctive of an escaped prisoner to run away from the police! But Number 6
gets lucky, and isn’t run down by the passing traffic. He makes his way across London on foot, eventually arriving in Buckingham Place. On the doorstep of what used to be his home, he
encounters Martha, a housemaid who looks down her nose that the raggedy man
stood making the doorstep look untidy. And has no sympathy for this apparent
vagrant! Mrs. Butterworth however is a different matter. She takes pity on this
“exile,” and invites him into her home and leads him into the study. After a
few moments Mrs. Butterworthleaves
Peter Smith, a name he adopted on the spur of the moment {well I think it was,
even after 50 years it’s still uncertain either way, whether Peter Smith is his
real name, or that he was simply unwilling to give even that piece of
information away} alone in the study. After all that has happened to him since
escaping The Village some 25 days ago, he’s still uncertain of his
surroundings. Because standing there in that study that was once his own, he
could still be in The Village. Perhaps his feeling of uncertainly stems from
the fact that once before he was supposed to have returned to London, to find
himself in an office he knew very well, only to discover that he had been in
The Village all the time. So he looks for reassurances in order to convince him
of place of being, the dialling tone of the telephone, the view from the
window. The patch of dry rot behind the bureau which he had made good about 6
months ago, and the hot and cold taps of the shower which had been put on the
wrong way round........I wonder if that’s how they were fitted to the shower in
the bathroom back in his cottage in The Village? Mrs. Butterworth said he didn’t need
to convince her, but it wasn’t for her benefit, it was Number 6 convincing
himself. After all Number 2 and the administration of The Village are damned
clever. Everything which had happened to Number 6, between his escaping The
Village to arriving back to his former home, could all have been induced to
take place purely in his subconscious, and as he stood there in the study he
could still have been in The Village for all he knew. But then if it had been
that way, what could they possibly have achieved, what did they achieve anyway,
except for the teaching Number 6 another lesson! If only Number 6 or Peter
Smith, had gone away and forgotten all about it, he might have finished as a
free man! But then as the newly retired Number 2 said in ‘It’s Your Funeral,’ “They’ll
find me eventually, wherever I go.”

Saturday, 22 April 2017

Tonight 'Anvil,' and
the question of surveillance. And it would seem that surveillance cameras have
taken a big step backwards since the days of the original 'Prisoner' series.
Because "Undercovers" have to go and physically install what are
called "Roach Cams." And then two "Undercovers" have to sit
on places like roof tops, and record the surveillance film footage on a lap
top! What's more "Undercovers do not even try to blend in. 909 and Six
while working together as "Underovers," go the to swimming pool. They
are wearing ordinary clothes, instead of swimming trunks, and they both stick
out like sore thumbs!
We also learn that there is no Number 1. There has never
been a Number 1, and there never will be. This according to Village history, as
told by schoolgirl 1,100.
Two offers Six the opportunity to work against him as an “Undercover,”
and Six will do anything to work against Two. It is a trap set by Two, but Two
wants to see if Six can turn the situation to his own advantage!Anvilquestions
surveillance, which is part of our everyday lives today. No-one knows who is
watching who in the Village. "Undercovers" themselves may be under
surveillance by other "Undercovers." So much so that everyone in the
Village could be watching everyone else, and everyone is suspect!
Six is recruited by Two to work as an
Undercover, to work with 909 who is Two’s best undercover, he thought Six would
have noticed that! Would Six really work for Two? Oh no, no, no, not for him,
but for the people he would be watching. Six pronounces so loudly his
opposition to Two, his disbelief of everything Two and The Village stands for,
people might trust him. Two already has his suspects, and he knows that Six
wants to meet with dreamers. So Two offers Six the apparatus and expertise of
their highly trained and well financed undercover operations to do just that.
Six “Why would you give me all that, if it wasn’t a trap?”
Two “My dear Six, it is a trap. You have such a high opinion of
yourself. I wondered if you would be clever enough to turn this opportunity to
your own advantage. Still….”
“Everything you say is a trap. Alright lets do it.”Cue opening credits……………….. In THEPRIS6NER-09
scriptwriter Bill Gallagher employed this idea in the episode ‘Anvil.’ When
Six, working undercover as a school teacher, he asks the pupils in his class
the oldest question in Village history. 1,100 replies “There is no Number
One. There has never been a Number One, and there never will be." The
concept of the Number Two is an act of humility. The title reminds us all that
we are all public servants, even Number Two.” As for Number Two, it was Number
2 the 14th who oversaw the reformation of The Village. As for the
first woman Number 2, well it wasn’t Lady Two the Great, as suggested by one
pupil. I thought it was Mary Morris! But as for there being no Number 1, that
that there has never been a Number One, and that there never will be, what
about Six being the One, as suggested by Two and proclaimed by both 147 and the
people of The Village? Perhaps 1,100 got it wrong, and Six was the first Number
1!

“Breathe in.......breathe out......Village
life goes on.”
Be seeing you

Friday, 21 April 2017

When Number 6 was standing for
election against Number 2, in that speech he gave from the forecastle of the
Stone boat he tells the electorate “You can partake in the most hazardous
sports and you will,” perhaps Kosho is one such dangerous sport he had in mind.
It certainly looks pretty dangerous! I recall when I used a trampoline at
school many of my classmates used to have to stand around the trampoline in
case if an accident. But it’s not just the danger of falling from one of the
trampolines, one could lose ones footing and slip off the top of the wall.
There might be a handrail, but the top of the wall has a slope to it. One wrong
slip, lose grip of that railing...... And then there’s the water tank. When you
have your opponent at your mercy you’re supposed to dunk him into the tank of
water. It’s no wonder they have to wear crash helmets, without one you could
crack your head open if it hit the side of that tank. Death could be
instantaneous! Health and Safety today would have a field day if they saw
anyone taking part in this outlandish and dangerous sport!

Thinking about it, Number 6
built himself a sea-going raft, survived 25 days at sea on it, in all elements,
spending only 4 hours out of each 24 asleep. And during that time he fought off
the two gun runners, and swam the best part of the English
Channel! He wasn’t aboard his raft in the English
Channel, he was picked up by the gun runners in the Atlantic
Ocean. He then jumped overboard and swam for it, towards
the light in the distance, which turned out to be the lighthouse at Beachy Head, where
Number 6 was washed ashore. So it stands to reason that he swam perhaps the
greater part of the English Channel between England and the
French coast, depending on where that motor cruiser was in the Channel. The
light from the lighthouse can be seen 26 miles out at sea, and it was a small
dot of light when first seen. So it’s possible that when Number 6 jumped
overboard he was some 20 miles from the south coast of England. Plus the English
Channel is one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world.
You see there is nothing Number 6 cannot do, as The Girl Who Was Death said
“You’re a born survivor!”

“What’s
number six?” When originally I heard Sir Charles Portland say that I thought
what does he know about Number 6? Yet in this instance its a photographic slide
he’s talking about, but perhaps in Sir Charles saying those words they are
designed to put the viewer on the alert, to expect a little more than just a
change in photographic slide! It could be one of those “in jokes” Patrick
McGoohan wasn’t so terribly keen on, unless it was one of his! After all its a
bit of a coincidence that Sir Charles should say those exact words “What’s
number six,” when the main character’s number in ‘the Prisoner’ is Number 6. But
in that may lie the design. If Sir Charles had said “What’s number eleven, or
what Number twenty three” any number other than 6 it wouldn’t have been so
noticeable.Did Sir Charles know of The Village,
and if he did did he know his future son-in-law had been abducted there? If not
then he was telling his daughter the truth, and yet even after 50 years its
still not clear either way. Don’t forget ZM73 had handed in his letter of
resignation, but his fiancee Janet Portland was still under the impression that
her finace was still working for her father. So her fiance had not informed her
of his decision to resign his position in her father’s department, and if Sir
Charles was aware he certainly kept it to himself! And if he didn’t know, then
either the Colonel or that bureauocrat to whom ZM73 had handed in his letter of
resignation, had not passed it on. And yet that cannot be right, as the two
previous Colonels knew of their ex-colleagues resignation, one even attempted
to extract the reason behind it from Number 6 during ‘The Chimes of Big Ben.’
Oh well it is ‘Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling’ after all.But I digress, what’s Number 6? It’s
a badly under-developed picture of Doctor Seltzman!

Wednesday, 19 April 2017

50 years of ‘the Prisoner’ and
so much remains a complete mystery, unfathomable, unanswerable. What matters
that we do not know the meaning and reason for something we cannot explain? We
shall not suffer for it, we are not the poorer for it. It’s just as Number 2 once
said, one like to know everything, unfortunately because the lack of some
details the file on the Prisoner and his Village will remain open, and sadly
never to be brought up to date!I wonder what happened to Chambers? I
like to think that the Prisoner followed in Chambers footsteps in having been
abducted to The Village. It’s just a pity that Cobb wasn’t Chambers then late
of the Foreign Office, that would have made more sense. After all Number 2 had
told the Prisoner of Chambers being a nice guy, and so talkative. Or perhaps
instead of Dutton it could have been Chambers Number 6 encountered at the cave
in ‘Dance of the Dead.’ After all ‘Dance of The Dead’ was originally to have
been the second episode. It seems to be that British Military
Intelligence was very susceptible to having its operatives abducted to The
Village. More than that, they are turned, and then put back into the original
place of work, but kept on ice so to speak, ready to be called on to act for
the Village. The Colonel and Fotheringay are two such excellent examples. It
maybe supposed that that is what they intended to do with Number 6. Abduct him
to The Village, extract all information from him, then turn him, and send him
back. Only he had resigned from his job, and the department he worked for
within British Military Intelligence, so the Village administration had nowhere
to send him back to. Having resigned he was ineffective to them. He would have
to remain in The Village....for life!Perhaps the reason why they wanted to
know the reason behind the Prisoner’s resignation is because they thought they
might be able to put it right. Then he could rescind his resignation and so
return to the fold so to speak. To carry on the good work but for The Village!
That would of course presuppose that the Prisoner having resigned his job was
unknown to The Village administration. That they had always intended to abduct
him to The Village, and that ZM73’s resignation was purely incidental to the
act of his abduction. But it could have been an inconvenience to them….had he
disappeared somewhere on holiday!

You come whistling into Number 6’s cottage
as though you own the place, which as we both know you do not! Granted you look
like Number 6, however you don’t wear the same colour blazer as he does. And
its blatently obvious that you have not taken the time to read Number 6’s
peronnel file, otherwise you would know not to wear that badge. Number 6 never
wears his badge!How was it for you after you woke up
here in The Village, anything like the way Number 6 woke up as you? I can understand the makeover they
must have given you in order to make you look more like Number 6, if he looked
anything like you when he woke up. Tell me, are you naturally right-handed or
were you conditioned to be so? Perhaps as Number 6 was undergoing conditioning
to make him like you Number 12, you were experiencing the same conditioning to
make you like Number 6. But they put the wrong blazer on the wrong man, and do
take that badge off!

Monday, 17 April 2017

Mind out there Number 6, make way, can’t you
hear vehicle horns? Two fast approaching Mini-Mokes come speeding along the
road, each driven by a medic. But just a minute, whose the chap on the bicycle
peddling for his life, he appears to be trying to keep up with the two taxis.
Perhaps he has a mania for chasing ambulances. Maybe there’s a life in danger,
and the chap on the bike had ridden to the hospital to get help!

At Madam Professor’s art
seminar there was a man tearing pages out of a book, and to Number 6 the man
appeared to be doing just that. But not to Madam Professor, according to her
he’s creating a fresh concept, destruction arising out of the ashes. Perhaps he
just didn’t like the book, perhaps it reminded him of something unpleasant. Or
perhaps he just didn’t like books in general. Then there was, according to
Number 6, a woman standing on her head, but no, you see that’s an easy mistake
to make. Again according to Madam Professor the woman is developing a new
perspective, but why can she not simply be standing on her head, why complicate
it and for what, art’s sake? And finally a man is sitting in a chair, he’s
asleep, apparently the mind learns only when it wants to. But then the man
might simply be tired, or had become bored. I remember becoming bored once, it
was during a screening of ‘Brand,’ Patrick McGoohan was playing Brand. I do not
care for Ibsen’s plays, they are too dark and damned depressing for me. Anyway
there he was, McGoohan as Brand, ranting and raving about something. Eventually
I fell asleep, and about half an hour later I woke up. And there he was, this
Brand, still in the same place, still ranting and raving on about something and
I felt as though I had missed nothing! After the screening people were saying
marvellous things about it, how wonderful Patrick McGoohan’s performance was,
they enthused about it, and coming out with the most profound things. But you
see I didn’t get it, if truth be told I didn’t want to get it, and as far as I
was concerned Patrick McGoohan was simply playing the role of another angry
man, he was good at that. For me people were seeing things I couldn’t, or they
were simply trying to sound clever, which is worse. I’m like Number 6, if I see
a man tearing up a book that’s just what he’s doing no matter what the
interpretation. A woman standing on her head is doing nothing more than that,
perhaps she likes to feel the blood rushing to her head! As for the man asleep
in the chair, well that was me!

Oh no not again I hear you sigh, but if
there’s one thing, apart from its unique incidental music, ‘Do Not Forsake Me
Oh My Darling’ has provided a goodly amount of material to write about. And it
was while I was replying to an email recently that I thought here’s something
I’ve not touched upon before. No.2 “We call this our amnesia room,
we’re rather proud of it. With it we can erase the memory back to any point we
choose. This man was extremely co-operative, told us all we wanted to know in
three days {what like A B and C} with hardly any persuasion. So now we wipe out
all unpleasant memories of The Village, and put him back into circulation to
gather more information.”If it’s possible for them to put the
mind of their choosing into an enemy agent, then send him into circulation in
order to gather information. Then to bring him back to The Village in order to
extract that information, why should they need to use any form of persuasion,
why shouldn’t their agent give up any such information voluntarily?
Furthermore, why is it necessary to wipe any unpleasant memories from the mind
of their own agent? Surely if they do that, then send the agent back into
circulation in order to gather more information, when they bring the agent back
to The Village surely he wouldn’t know where he was {a possible flaw in the
plan} therefore he would resist, and refuse to give away the information in his
head. That could account for the need to use persuasion in order to extract
information!

Saturday, 15 April 2017

Having been attacked
by the Guardian {I do not write Village Guardian, as the Guardian never appears
in The Village in this series} at the end of ‘Arrival,’ Six is left unconscious
in the desert! Then there is another remembrance, Michael returning to his New York apartment with Lucy. While as a boy he is on the
beach looking for his brother, as 16 is in the desert looking for his
brother Six!
Six didn’t recognise 16 as his brother, because his bother was lost at
sea on one of their trips to the beach when they were boys. 16 is not Six’s
brother. Two gives Six his brother back, and a family. Family is important to
Two, its just a pity that Two’s own family is so disjointed!
Two recommends Six undergo some therapy, The Talking Cure. Unless
Six is afraid that Two will mess with his mind, or that Six will discover that
he is the problem after all!
Six spends time with 16 and his family, discovers that he’s a bus
driver, learns that he does like pork after all. He also learns about Wonkers,
the television serialisation of the book Wonkers, about life in The Village.
One of his “nieces” explains the current storyline Six……….okay, so, 765 is in
love with 23-30, but 23-56 is pregnant to 46-5, and 9-13 had an affair with
23-30. So 765 is jealous of 23-30, and so she, like, took her revenge by
sleeping with 46-5. While on the television screen……………
765 “I’m leaving you.”
“No.”
“Yes.”
“Oh no! Why?”
“I love your brother.”
“Oh.”
In Palais 2, Two’s residence,11-12 sits on his mother’s bed as she
sleeps on, dreaming The Village, and then spies on Two as he feeds his wife,
M2, three more pills. And Six helps 16 with a bicycle repair, before he goes to
the Clinic for his first therapy session with the brothers 70. For Six The
Village is a dark place, his home is not his home, his brother is not his
brother, nothing’s real!But at least Two got Six to admit to who he
is, Six. And we learnt a little more about Michael, that he worked for a
company called Summaker, and was connected to surveillance as an observer,
watching people, writing reports about people living in New York. And he once had a brother, no I don't mean that
impostor in The Village. A brother who was lost at sea, drowned, well you saw
that for yourself. But how Six knew where that buried tin was, well is that
simply a memory?
Nice to be seeing a pair of twins in The village, 70, who tried
talking things out with Six. Two doesn't believe in this sort of therapy, but
then it's not important for Two to believe, just as long as Six believes! But
did I say there was something dark and dangerous about Two, if I did, then I
left something out, he's also twisted. I mean keeping his wife drugged like
that, then sleeping with her!
Most of what we see takes place out in the desert, looking
for the ocean this week. An ocean through which the Village guardian comes
along and takes 16 into the depths. A terrible way to die. But then, if the
ocean was never there in the first place, when you think about it, 16's death
was even worse for him than we saw on the screen. I think it was very clever of Two
to give Six a family, through which Two hoped to see Six accept his situation
through his brother, and finally settle down. It appears that Six used to work
at the bus depot, as a bus driver! Harmony I found to be a surreal
episode, with a surreal ships anchor in the desert, along with a long abandoned
railway halt! It's all to do with the mind isn't it, and that takes some
getting my mind round. 16 was never Six's brother, and people go on the bus
tours of The Village day after day, seeing the same old thing, described in the
same old way. And what about that Solar Cafe, rebuilt, as though the explosion
in Arrival never took place. What's more there's something very 1950's about
The Village. What with the Bubble car, and the black Bedford van. They come for you see, and in broad daylight,
just like they came for Six, those men in their white suits and black Bedford van. They come for you, and take you to the clinic.
I wonder what they'll do to Six? So surreal, with so much
happening, I'll really have to watch this episode a second time before I can
really get into it. Because I was determined not to give up on the series. And
that was a brilliant Village guardian effect, the way it moved though the
water, which really wasn't water, but sand.....poor 16!

On
the morning of ‘Free For All’ there
comes an early morning greeting, made by a female announcer “Congratulations on
yet another day,” probably meaning that if you're awake, you've made it through
the night! Well they come for you in
the night you see, at a time when your guard is down and you’re heavily drugged,
and take you away. They did that to Number 6 three nights running in ‘A B & C’ as they carried out a
running experiment. And if it hadn't been for the doctor-Number 14 there would
have been the possibility that Number 6 might not have made it through the
night, so keen as Number 2 was to continue with the experiment! But at least
they took him back to his cottage, because there is that time in ‘The Schizoid
Man’ when they didn’t! They came for Number 6 in the night, two doctors, but
his sleep was light, so they deepened it for him! Then he was supposed to have
woken up the next morning, not as himself, but as someone else. There have been times when I’ve woken up not
realizing what day it was, but ‘The Schizoid Man’ takes things to extremes. It’s
between four and six weeks when Number 6 wakes up in a strange apartment, but
at least he did, and lives to face the day as someone else, Number 12, and told
that his job is to impersonate himself. Life cannot get much worse than that,
or can it? There’s the time in ‘Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling’ when they came
for Number 6, but this time it was different, as four “Snowdrops” military
policemen manhandling him from his cottage. I’ve wondered why it is that Number
6 is taken from his cottage that way, it’s the odd one out, when it would have
been much easier to take him from his cottage in the night when he’s asleep and
heavily sedated!

In ‘Many Happy Returns,’ Number 6 dodges passed the police roadblock,
they are apparently looking for an escaped prisoner, which I find particularly
ironic. Anyway, he jumps aboard and into the back of a large Luton
van with the name NETCO, on the tailgate of the van, it’s a sign which doesn’t
look quite right to me, I suppose it’s the white background. It’s as though the
sign has been contrived for the camera, because I would have thought such a
sign would have been on the side of the van, not just on the tailgate. A sign
on the side of the van wouldn’t be seen so well on camera, but on the tailgate
the sign is ideal for the camera!He climbs up onto a ledge above the
driver’s cab, gets himself a sack to cover himself, and goes to sleep. Suddenly
Number 6 awakens to the sounds of a police siren, instinct suddenly kicks in. I
don’t know why, but he gets up and he leaps out of the back of the
van........into the busy road of Park Lane! I’ve never understood why Number 6 suddenly leapt
out of the back of that van, after all he had no idea where he was, certainly
the sound of the siren had an effect upon him. But having leapt out of the back
of that van he might easily have leapt under a London bus, been hit by a taxi or car, and laid badly
injured, or worse, lay dead in the road! I’ve always thought what a terrible
risk he took by doing that, it was so unnecessary because no-one knew he was
there, least of all the van driver. And really I suppose, Number 6 was most fortunate
that the van was travelling to London in the first place.

Thursday, 13 April 2017

It looks very much like the Prisoner is
about to have a nasty experience! If only he had kept his head, his hands on
the steering wheel, and foot to the accelerator. Perhaps that’s what made the
Mini-Moke jolt suddenly, taking his foot off the accelerator stalling the
vehicle with it still in gear? Had he not done so, the vehicle’s impact with
the membranic Guardian would have caused it to rise into the air, and the
Prisoner could have driven on at speed into the distance with the Guardian in
pursuit! But then had that taken place perhaps one of the Posts, like Post 14
could have shot out one of the Mini-Moke’s tyres using a high-powered rifle,
thus causing the vehicle to crash, throwing the driver out onto the sand,
leaving the driver to the merciless Guardian!

Is The Village simply for the
benefit of Number 6? After all everything which goes on there appears to
revolve around him. At least that is the impression given. Can we be sure that
The Village even existed before the Prisoner Number 6 arrived there? There is
no evidence that it did, perhaps Number 6 built The Village himself in order to
make his own prison.And did The Village
still exist after Number 6 left? Certainly The Village was abandoned, evacuated
of all its citizens, and no-one in their right minds would ever go back
there................would they?

ZM73 should have kept that
receipt for the roll of photographic film in his wall safe rather than give it
to Janet Portland for safe keeping. Then mister “Carmichael” couldn’t have laid
his hands on it, and with it the photographic slides for Sir Charles Portland!
I wonder if that wall safe was replicated in Number 6’s cottage back in The
Village? Shouldn’t think so.

50 years of ‘the Prisoner,’ you would think by now I’d have gotten it
out of my system, but no I’m still writing about it, trying to think of new
ways to come at the series. Oh I know some people who have given up on ‘the
Prisoner,’ having got all they need from the series, and have moved on having
found new interests to keep them occupied. Well it does happen you know. I know
of a couple of people who have thought themselves to be “over” and “beyond” the
Prisoner now, I wonder what they mean by that? Obviously they are not one of
Number 2’s so called “lifers.” Some people have obviously escaped, and moved on
to pastures new. But they will become prisoners again, oh not of ‘the
prisoner,’ but of something else.Yes writing of ‘the Prisoner,’ my
very first letter to be written on the subject of ‘the Prisoner’ I submitted to
Number 6 magazine, the society magazine for Six of One: The Prisoner Appreciation
society back in 1987. It was a short letter as I recall about nothing in
particular, rather insignificant as I recall.‘The Prisoner’ used to be a rather
private affair as I once wrote in an article, but now since writing my
‘Prisoner’ based blog I’ve made it a rather public affair. Well the majority of
us feel the compelling need to share our thoughts, ideas, interpretations, and
the different ways we look at the series, with like-minded enthusiasts.
Although we might not agree with the other guy’s points of view, but then that’s
human nature. It goes on you see, the playing around with ‘the Prisoner,’ it
gives pleasure. “Questions are a burden to other. Answers a prison for
oneself,” meaning, as Norma West once recalled in an interview “There are
perfect questions, and only imperfect answers.” But even that doesn’t stop us
moving pieces around, trying to make them fit, in order to make the jigsaw
complete. But what then? You have the jigsaw in front of you, the picture could
not be clearer, you break the jigsaw up into its individual pieces and put them
back in the box............only to take them out again at some future date to
begin all over again.

Tuesday, 11 April 2017

In the construction of ‘6 Private’ they incorporated a perfect
reconstruction of ZM73’s study of his London house right down to the last
detail, and I’ve wondered if they also incorporated the wall safe behind the
television set. And seeing as how the bathroom door slides to the left as you
go in, did they also put the hot and cold taps on the wrong way round when the
plumbers installed the shower? They certainly installed a camera behind the
mirror in the bathroom.............just a minute! What was it Number 2 said
during his de-briefing of the Prisoner, “What was that, sounded like a click,
something in the mirror?” But there is no mirror in the study of his London home, not when he’s getting ready to leave after
handing in his letter of resignation. Not when Mrs. Butterworth lived there,
and certainly not when the Prisoner woke up back in his London home, but in the guise of the Colonel. Unless of
course Number 2 was referring to the mirror in the hallway which seems unlikely
as they wouldn’t see much through that, apart from the opposite wall, and part
of the front door. So where was ZM73 while he was under such close
surveillance, and if ZM73 was at home to which mirror is Number 2 referring during
that debriefing in ‘Arrival?’

I find that I’m just as much a prisoner today as I was yesterday and the
days before that! I suppose it had to happen to someone, and today it happened
to me. This morning I woke up to find the Village deserted, everyone had gone
but me! The silence was broken only by the wind and the squawking of the sea
birds. I washed and dressed then went out into The Village. The General Store
was locked, as was the cafe, there were coffee pots and half drunk cups of tea
and half eaten cheese cakes on the table on the patio. The Old People’s home
was deserted, no-one clambering about the Stone Boat’s rigging. I forced my way
into the Green Dome, then into Number 2’s office, I was sure he was behind what
wasn’t going on that morning. But he wasn’t there, but there was a note, I read
it. It said “Would the last man to leave The Village please turn off the
light!” It was signed Number 2 Chief Administrator.I went back out into The Village,
there was no helicopter, and even if there was I couldn’t have piloted it. I
could have set off on foot towards the mountains, but I wasn’t much of a
walker, and even less a mountaineer. Then I saw it, an abandoned Mini-Moke. The
key had been left in the ignition, I climbed aboard and turning the key the
engine fired into life. I drove out of The Village and into the countryside
along a well used track way. After a few miles the track ran out, I could go no
further, it was the mountains. So having driven back to The Village I wondered
what best to do. It struck me that I could do one of two things, the first
seemed unlikely as I was no seaman, and besides even if I were there was no
boat. I might be able to fashion myself a sea-going raft, but then there was
the question of navigation, of where I was sailing to and not knowing where I
was sailing from. I was not prepared to risk my life at sea. The alternative
was to sit it out, wait for someone to come to The Village and find me.I made myself as comfortable as I
could, I still have my home, and after breaking into the General Store I had
ample provisions. True there was no electricity, but there were candles, and I
had two torch lights with plenty of spare batteries. I decided to build a
beacon, a distress beacon, and there was no-one more in distress than me
marooned in this Village. The Bell Tower was the highest point in The Village,
so I found myself an axe in a workshop and with it felled three small trees,
stripped them of their branches then chopped the trees up, and hauled the logs,
branches and all to the top of the Bell Tower. Then from a supply shed I took a
can of petrol and emptied its contents over my beacon and set light to it as
night was falling. My beacon burned half the night, I’ve no idea if my distress
beacon was seen but no-one came. I rebuilt the beacon deciding to light it only
when I saw a sign from my world beyond The Village. I kept a daily watch from
the BellTower, there was never
any sign of a light, boat, or plane.Two weeks had now passed by and I was
beginning to get fed up with my own company. Then one morning I woke to find
the tide had gone out, all I could see was flat sand stretching out into the
distance. This was my chance. First I found two wooden crates into which I
filled as many provisions from the General Store as I could, mostly tinned
stuff. I found an old wooden keg which I filled with fresh water from the
waterfall. I remembered that Number 14 had a camera, so I hurried round to her
cottage, found the camera and a spare roll of Village film, and took photographs
of all points of the Village.......for evidence. Then I drove the taxi round to
a workshop, I found a dipstick which I used to check the petrol tank, the
Mini-Moke not being fitted with something as simple as a fuel gauge! The
dipstick indicated the petrol tank was only a quarter full. So I topped it up
from a large fuel tank, found not far from the workshops, as well as filling
four large green Jerry cans. These I placed in the Mini-Moke along with my
boxes of provisions, together with the roll of film. I drove through The
Village for the last time, it was quite, peaceful, the only sounds were the
wind, the squawking of the sea birds, and of course the engine of the
Mini-Moke. It had never occurred to me until I drove passed the Town Hall and
down the road to the Old People’s Home, that there had been no sight nor sound
of the white membranic Guardian. I could only imagine, indeed hope that it had
been deactivated, and had not been left to patrol the deserted Village. At the Old People’s Home I steered the
Mini-Moke round to the left, then after a short way right down the slipway and
onto the beach. I stopped the Mini-Moke and looked all about, and waited. Then
depressing the clutch I engaged first gear, pressed down on the accelerator
while at the same time lifting the clutch and the Mini-Moke moved slowly
forward. When I was well out onto the sand I stopped the Mini-Moke once more,
looked, listened, and waited. There was nothing, so I revved the engine,
engaged first gear and pressed the accelerator to the floor and the Mini-Moke
raced across the sand, away from The Village and into the
distance..................

Sunday, 9 April 2017

“Pat-a-cake, pat-a-cake baker’s
man, bake me a cake as fast as you can. But this is what you fed into the
computer!”“And that’s what came out.”“And that’s what you get from a second-hand, rewired computer like the
General!”“I can put it through again if you
like sir.”“What’s the point, if you only get
out what you put in?”“But if you don’t put it in, in the
first place, you can’t get it out in the second place!”“But we didn’t get it out!”“But we put it in.”“And this is what came out.”“Yes sir.”“It’s meaningless!”“Nursery rhymes are rarely
meaningless sir.”“Who asked you? Oh get out of my
way.”{Number 2 quickly makes for the door
through the arch, and trips up}“And who put that blasted step there?
I could have broken my leg, pigmies!”

About Me

An enthusiast of the 1960's television series 'the Prisoner.' A writer, author, and considered an authority on the series.
'The Prisoner' captivated me from the moment of that clash of thunder in the opening sequence, and I have been a prisoner of 'the Prisoner' ever since.